It had been 11 years since I’d made the journey to the North Maine Woods to loose myself for a bit and hunt ruffed grouse.
Back in 2013 it was the third year in a row we made the trek. It was the year Edward Snowden became famous for leaking classified information. FroYo (frozen yogurt) was a food trend. The word of the year was Selfie. Netflix started its first streaming series show – House of Cards. The Boston Marathon was bombed. Tony Soprano and Nelson Mandela died. Obama Care was rolled out and I was a vigorous 45.
My 11-year-old son accompanied me on that trip after he completed the Virginia Hunters Education certification, and I bought him a Rossi .410 Snakecharmer shotgun from Green Top. He shot like a bird sniper with that little gun his first year.
I had told him when he graduated from college we’d go back to Maine. Now 22 and a recent graduate of Virginia Tech, he is still my best travelling companion even though he needles me about coughing and clearing my throat too much. He’s a fairly easy-going, strapping 5’11”, auburn-haired, wide-smile GenZ that everyone loves. I wistfully still remember the day he last held my hand, and I’m proud of the man he is becoming.
His mother and I wanted to reward him with the trip as a graduation present. He received time off from his internship with the Virginia Department of Environmental Quality and we planned our expedition October 3-10.
Our itinerary had us departing early Thursday, October 3 and driving 823 miles to Millinocket, Maine and spending the night. The next morning, we would hunt the 100-mile, 4.5-hour ride into Ross Lake Camps located in the North Maine Woods holding. We travelled with Delegate Buddy Fowler, his German shorthaired pointer, Fritz and our Brittany spaniel, Birdie, all packed into his 2007 Chevy Silverado cab-and-a-half! Fowler and I have been hunting together for a about year and he’s a lot of fun with endless stories.
Departure and first leg of the trip went well, and we found ourselves in Millinocket by 10:15 pm Thursday. We woke up the next morning ready to head into the woods for the next five days and eager to see what the new owners of Ross Lake Camps had waiting for us.
Sharon and Dan Roeder bought the camp in 2022 and immediately set about updating its infrastructure. When I last visited it only had a single shower for the entire camp and several outhouses! It now has a bathhouse with three showers and flush toilets. We even had wi-fi during generator hours – a true luxury that far back in the woods.
I had heard from various sources that the grouse nesting season was good this past spring and summer and Sharon and Dan confirmed that when I booked our stay. In fact, they told me the grouse had two broods. This was good news as the 2023 nesting season and summer was unusually wet and few birds survived. They needed a good hatch.
Our ride-in hunt day, Friday, I consider Day One. It was memorable because Buddy, Mitchell and me, all harvested grouse on a sun-soaked, 70-degree afternoon that featured dusty roads and trees in full fall splendor. My son took his four-bird limit before we even arrived at the lodge. The Rossi is long gone but I visited Green Top again and bought him a Tristar Youth semi-auto 20 ga. and he’s become an excellent wing shooter with it over the past four years.
We rolled into camp around 4 pm and moved into the Fox Den cabin, previously reserved for the guides. The cabin’s front porch was festooned with moose and deer skulls. The interior consisted of a front room with two LazyBoy type chairs and a leather couch we discovered on Day 3 could be adjusted at the touch of a button when the generator was running! There was also a TV that ran off WiFi and much to our delight, my son figured out how to sign in and stream the NFL for Sunday’s Commanders’ game.
I met our hosts and we enjoyed a fine dinner that featured steak, scalloped potatoes, green beans and pie for dessert. After dinner I walked Birdie down to the lake, away from the camp lights and marveled at how brightly the Milky Way shone among a billion other stars. I slept a bit restlessly that first night in camp as I was excited for the next day and still figuring out the sleeping arrangements.
Day 2, Saturday, was unfortunately rainy and a bit chilly at 51 degrees. It was the day Buddy discovered he’d forgotten his chaps as well. Anything claiming to be waterproof would undergo a serious test today.
We headed out to an area I’d marked on my Gazeteer that was good in 2013 and immediately bumped a grouse that I dispatched with American Arms over and under 20 ga. I had brought due to its lightness. A walk through wet alders that had spread into the old logging road produced a woodcock flush but the rest of the drive produced nothing so we piled back into the truck and headed for the next road – scene that would be repeated many times.
Still in the same area, hunting logging trails off the St. Juste Road we flushed more woodcock but few grouse. I think the rain pushes them back under the protective cover of spruce trees. I could tell Buddy was doing his best with pair of soaking wet pants. My son too, was wet. The pair of Filson chaps my wife got me from Green Top were invaluable and my waterproof Carhartt boots kept my feet dry.
By the end of the day, we’d flushed or seen 17 grouse and bagged an agressive woodcock that pretty much tried to kamikaze me. Coming into camp, we had three turkey escort us, a fairly new bird for these parts of northwestern Maine.
Dinner was BBQ chicken, and we were the only three hunters in camp. I slept more soundly but had to pull the covers over my head to ward off the chill that had gotten into my bones even after a hot shower. Thank goodness for boot dryers – I brought mine and there were two others in the cabin.
Day 3 was a day of rest as there is no hunting on Sunday in Maine. That’s ok, because we were able to walk the lodge road with the dogs and flushed four grouse and two woodcock. In between, we watched the Commanders beat the Browns! More hunters rolled in that evening and Ross Lake Camp was now full of bird hunters. I helped Sharon with dinner prep and dishes as Dan was off to a neighboring camp to help a friend with some projects. Lasagna is one of my favorites. I had bit of the Famous Grouse before heading to the rack while Mitchell and Buddy stayed up to watch Sunday Night Football.
Day 4, Monday featured hard rainfall and 48 degrees until late afternoon when the rain abated into a heavy mist. Our morning hunt was very tough, and we drove up along the St. Johns River to a place I had dubbed Grouse Alley on our last trip.
In the 11 years since, the spruce trees had grown considerably, and the roads were more like trails. We did flush six grouse, one of which, jumped out in front of me on the trail before flushing. I emptied my gun, but the grouse kept flying. It was another example of my oddly poor shooting and a sticky safety that made me long for the 20 ga. Daly I brought but wanted to keep dry.
We headed back to camp for a change of clothes and boots. The generator was not on, so the cabin was cold. I managed to start a fire in the woodstove and in no time, it was about 85 degrees in the cabin – perfect for drying pants and boots!
Buddy loved that stove and heard the Woodford and chair calling, so just Mitchell, Birdie and I went back out around 2:30 pm. We did a couple of loops in the truck, flushing 11 grouse, including a group of three. We dropped a total of three and another woodcock.
A hot shower was the perfect end to the wet and chilly day. I think I fell asleep in my chair watching Monday Night Football before heading back to the bedroom.
Day 5, Tuesday was just what the doctor ordered – sunny and 54 degrees. I decided we’d do the 25-mile river loop that would give us a very good account of what was using the roads. Our journey took us through countless potholes, alder limbs reaching for the truck, flooded low spots, beautiful spruce forests, logged sections but few birds. We saw only five and dropped none.
Once we emerged from that loop, I decided to take us south of the lodge where we’d seen birds on the ride in. This was a good move as we hunted an area known as Maple Hill and flushed 12 birds. One lightly travelled road/trail held most and Mitchell and I each dropped grouse. I took a nice one on the wing after both Fritz and Birdie pointed. Mitchell bagged the biggest gray phase I’d ever seen with a fan around 13” wide.
As we headed back to camp, we saw a moose watching us from the woods. Dinner was ham, mashed potatoes with gravy and pork and beans. It was a hearty meal topped off by a small slice of blueberry pie.
Back in the cabin, we watched a horrible movie called Jackpot until I could take no more and went to bed wishing tomorrow wasn’t our final day.
Day 6 of Grouse Camp was the day we’d drive out of the woods, hunting along the way. I was up early to pack after walking the dog down to the lake and witnessing a sunrise for the books. It was 35 degrees with frost on the ground. A heavy mist began falling at 8 am.
We were in the Silverado and rolling by 9 am with a five-hour ride to Millinocket ahead of us. It was a great ride because we saw 20+ birds. Many were red phase grouse. Mitchell was the top shot and even dropped two with one shot.
Coming around a blind curve we happened upon a bull moose, then saw what he was after – two cows. I am always amazed seeing these horse-sized relatives to deer.
The last bird I saw was chittering at me from a thicket after we followed a road bird into the woods and flushed three, plus a woodcock. I raised my gun, clicked off the safety but let the bird go in hopes there would be another good hatch next spring.
Our stay featured typical north Maine woods fall weather – some sunny days and some rainy days with temperatures from 35-70 degrees.
The dogs were like happy children at the State Fair, bounding in and out of the young spruce trees that crowded the logging roads we walked. Each’s bells ringing as they ran, silent when they pointed a bird. While you don’t need a dog to hunt grouse in this part of Maine, it helps when they aren’t using the roads.
We explored many trails and roads using a combination of my well-marked Delorme Maine Gazeteer and Google Earth. The scenery was always stunning from daybreak to sunset.
Buddy at 69 is a well-travelled hunter and angler and I was amazed at his ability to hang with my son and me under some challenging hunting conditions. He did enjoy the recliner and some Woodford Reserve back at the cabin two afternoons after rain-soaked morning hunts. I even started two fires in the wood stove to warm everyone up.
Mitchell and I would go back out and hunt until dark after dropping Buddy off at the cabin. I’m 56 now and not quite as vigorous as I was 11 years ago but I still hunt to the last bell because I’ve lived long enough to know it could be my last hunt. I also enjoyed watching my son and dog. She’s a little over a year-and-a-half and is equally at home on the couch or with a bird in her mouth.
My son, well he’s at a crossroads in life. Many of you have followed our adventures since he was a little boy. Remember when you were about to cross that line from childhood to adulthood and moving into your own place and getting your first real job? During our trip he got a message from DEQ with a job offer he is going to take in Salem, Virginia. It’s a time of anxiety and change and some young people have trouble accepting the inevitable – that change is the only thing guaranteed in life.
I’ve been preparing him (and myself) for a few years that this time would come. I’m happy to note he pushed the start date back just a bit so he can find a place to rent (and join me for woodcock camp in Canaan Valley, West Virginia in early November).
We returned to Virginia October 10 with a load of dirty clothes and damp boots and cooler with our limit of birds, one of which was a giant gray phase Mitchell will mount and hopefully remind him of the fellowship of our trip long after I’m gone. I also harvested a few woodcock.
I can highly recommend Ross Lake Camps, but I will say this type of hunting is tough and the venue rugged and remote – it’s not for everyone. However, if you are up for a challenge and love bird hunting, I think you’ll find some of the best grouse and woodcock hunting in the US during the first few weeks of October there. To contact the Roeders call 207.227.7766 or email them at info@rosslakecamps.com.
Virginia does have grouse, but nowhere near as many. I have seen a few in mountain Wildlife Management Areas. We do have plenty of woodcock and I look forward to the peak of that season in January after the deer hunters are done with the woods.
